I cannot believe it is nearly the end of another school year! This year seemed to fly by. For the first time, I really was teaching two kids (more than I expected, but more on that coming up!). My son just turned 5, and my daughter is 3. I also have a one-year-old who does a great job making school time interesting!

Do you have a reader ready for their first chapter books? This post covers our favorites! I created this post in particular for people who may have younger early readers and are looking for chapter books appropriate for a 3, 4, or 5-year-old, since I know that challenge. However, these books are not “babyish” in any way and are absolutely appropriate for (and written for!) an elementary-age audience.

I knew that in our homeschool, I wanted to teach about art and artists, but it took us a bit of adjusting to find an approach that works. Often, among all the different things we were doing, this piece would get lost. I would be trying to do too much when we did do an artist study, do it only very occasionally, and then skip for months. I realized I was placing too much pressure on what was learned for each artist study. This year, I finally found a super simple approach to artist studies that works in our home.

What is the best math curriculum for homeschooling a young child? This will depend on your child, but I am sharing our thoughts on the five different math curricula we have tried. My son is gifted and above grade level. He loves math and is always looking for a challenge. What is the best curriculum for us?

I get asked a lot about our favorite Toniebox figurines (and Yoto cards—stay tuned for that post next!), so I figured it was time to compile a list of our favorites. Overall, we have preferred listening to music on our Toniebox but I include some of our favorite stories here as well.

Are you looking to incorporate more Montessori in your home, but not sure where to start? Are you wondering what sort of chores your toddler can do at each age? This blog post goes through tasks you can introduce to your baby or toddler!

A bit ago, I heard the word “gameschooling.” I fell in love with the term. We love board games here and, particularly when it comes to math, they are a wonderful way to practice skills. This blog post will share some of the best games to practice math skills for toddlers through early elementary.

If you know me, you know I love living in New York City with kids. We moved away for two years, and now we’re back. I couldn’t be happier. I think New York City is such a fun place with children, and there really is so much to do! Plus, it’s super accessible without cars, so you can totally skip the car seat and just use public transit. This blog post shares some of our absolute favorite activities with children, including New York City museums that are great with kids, kid-friendly theater in New York City, and playgrounds.

I really didn’t think I would be this excited about a math curriculum, but here we are. If you’ve read my blog or read about our reading journey, you know how much I love All About Reading. This blog post reviews our experience with All About Math and why it may or may not be a good fit for you!

It is August, so we are now weeks away from “back to school.” I know many parts of the country start in August, but I just can’t grasp that. School is after Labor Day around here! I finally got around to ordering our curricula for the next year. So, now I am going to share a bit about our plans for the upcoming school year.

If I were to recommend one product, it would be a Montessori learning tower or toddler kitchen helper tower. There are several names for this item. The name doesn’t matter, but what it does matters. Toddler learning towers allow your toddler to reach the counter safely. These kitchen towers are special, enclosed stools that bring toddlers to counter height, while offering sides that protect them from easily falling. Kitchen towers let toddlers and young children join you as you cook. It doesn’t even feel dramatic to me to say they can transform your home. Yet, with so many options on the market, which toddler kitchen tower is the best?

It is hard for me to believe it is June again and I am thinking about how to end our year of homeschool. As the year comes to a close I am reflecting on what we learned this year, what worked, and what didn’t. I am sharing those reflections here, along with our plans for the summer and fall.

We recently completed a Montessori-inspired human body unit study and had the best time! As always, I learned some stuff right alongside my children. I have two children, ages 2 and nearly 4 at the time of this study (well, I also have a baby, but he wasn’t involved other than hanging out!). We practice Montessori at home and do Pre-K at home.

Can a 2-year-old play a board game? Absolutely! We have had so much fun playing board games with my second two-year-old in our family. When my son was 2 we pretty much only played First Orchard but this time we have explored many more games.

If you are planning an Arctic unit study I would venture to guess it is probably winter. This is a funny realization to me because while obviously Arctic animals are around all year, most of us find ourselves planning these unit studies when it is cold where we live. For us we set out on an Arctic unit study in January and February.

If you think board games for 3-year-olds are boring, keep reading this post. You are not stuck just playing Candyland for hours. In recent years a treasure trove of wonderful board games for toddlers and preschoolers has appeared. It has been nearly a year since I wrote a blog post with some of our favorite 3-year-old board games. Since then we have tried so many more. This blog post is going to review every game we have played with my 3-year-old.

Welcome to one of the most amazing stages: moving on from decodable books to authentic texts! This truly has been one of the most fun milestones for us. I wrote a post on our favorite decodable books and many posts about our reading journey. Now I am sharing books we have loved now that we have completed phonics instruction and my son can read almost any word.

A little over two years ago I thought of the idea of developing visual recipes for my toddler. These recipes gave him more independence in the kitchen, made cooking together more fun, and taught him many pre-academic skills. Read here for why and how to introduce visual recipes to your toddler.

Since the Lovevery reading skills set was released I think this has been my most asked question! Almost daily I get someone asking what I think about the Lovevery reading skills set-even before I got it myself. I bought this set with my own money. This is review covers our experience with the Lovevery reading skills set.

Looking for books about birds for your toddler or preschooler? This list has our favorite books about birds. It includes some fiction and some nonfiction, providing a wonderful addition to a unit study on birds or simply to have some more beautiful literature in your home.